Slow Down
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: Drabble (Flash Fiction Project). Side story to "All The Small Things". Nobody could have foreseen Tee getting so worked up about OWL results, but then she does have a habit of keeping things to herself. If only she'd slow down, then she'd realise she already has people she can tell anything to. Fred/OC
"You all have post," Mrs. Weasley announced as they came down to breakfast. "You girls too."

"Us?" Tee repeated, confused. They were only staying at the Burrow for a few weeks of their summer holidays. It was unusual for anyone to know to have their post sent here.

"They must be from the school - Professor Dumbledore never misses a trick," Mrs. Weasley enlightened them. Her face then lit up. "Oh! They might be your OWL results!"

Tee was the first to snatch up her envelope as Mrs. Weasley dropped them onto the table, to the surprise of the twins. She ripped it open with such force that she almost tore the contents. Her eyes flicked back and forth as she skimmed the text in front of her, but her excitement to find out quickly dimmed, her face emptied, then washed over with disappointment.

As usual, Rose was the only one to know exactly what was on her mind. "It's okay, Tee," she reassured her best friend.

"No. It's not," said Tee shortly. She pushed her chair back with a loud scrape, tossed the letter carelessly onto the table and strode from the room.

Mrs. Weasley was the first to break the confused silence. "Oh dear. I guess she wasn't very happy with her results."

"No way. Tee doesn't care about her results." Fred pulled the letter towards him, ignoring his mother's protests about reading other people's mail, and scanned through it. Overall, her results were good. She only had low, non-passing grades in Potions, Divination and barely History of Magic. That wasn't surprising, given the teachers they had for those subjects.

"Yes, she does," Rose contradicted quietly, almost guiltily.

Fred frowned across the table at her. "Since when?"

"Since you guys didn't care about yours, she acted like she didn't either."

Fred looked at Rose, then back down at the table, realisation dawning. He sighed and got up. "Y'know, she'd make things so much easier if she'd just be honest with herself for once."

Tee wasn't hard to find. Normally, her first call if she wanted some alone time was to lock herself in her room. Fred knew that from experience. But since she didn't have her own room to shut herself in, she'd resort to her other method for clearing her head. Flying. Sure enough, Fred spotted her zip by one of the second storey windows on her broomstick. He grabbed his own and rushed out to join her.

Even when he rose into the air, up to her level, she still zoomed past without even looking at him, like he wasn't there. "Come on, Tee, let's just talk about it," he shouted after her.

"Nope," was Tee's response as she zipped past again.

Fred attempted to take chase - Tee's best quality as a flyer was her speed, but he was fast too - though he knew that, in the end, it was futile. Tee's broom may have been old, but the Silver Arrows were built very similar to the new sports brooms. Age and wear didn't do much to take away from that craftsmanship. Whereas he was still riding his Cleansweep Five - a much more basic model.

"Just slow down a second, Tee!"

Again, he was ignored. Luckily, Tee and Rose weren't the only ones visiting the Burrow for the summer. And one of the guests just so happened to have one of the few brooms that could beat Tee's. Fred disappeared back into the house and returned with Harry's Firebolt on loan, after explaining he needed to catch his crazy girlfriend. Now he had more than a chance.

He was easily able to outstrip Tee and cut across her, forcing her to career to a stop so that she wouldn't crash into him. "What are you doing?" she protested.

"I told you to slow down and you didn't."

"Because I didn't want to!"

"Will you please just come down and talk to me? I thought we were past the stage where I had to chase you for it."

Tee bit her lip. He was right and he was being very reasonable about it. She'd always chose to keep her problems inside her own head and try to deal with them herself, but she had to remember that she had a best friend and now a boyfriend who were more than happy to help her. With that thought in mind, Tee finally descended back to the ground. Fred smiled and followed suit. They sat on the grassy verge at the back of the house, the brooms left aside.

He waited for her to talk first, now that she'd conceded to it. "I can't be an Auror without a NEWT in Potions. And I can't do that if I failed at OWL level - I wouldn't even be allowed into the class."

Tee had mentioned before that she wanted to be an Auror later in life, but again, she'd never stressed how important it was to her. Fred was beginning to realise that it was very important. "Why didn't you tell me you were worried about your results?"

"Because you weren't worried about yours. I thought you might laugh."

Fred rolled his eyes. "Me and George don't care about results because we want to open our own joke shop and we don't need OWLs for that. But you do need them for what you want to do, so you have every right to care. I wouldn't laugh at something that's important to you."

Tee didn't know what to say to that. She said the only thing that came to mind. "Thanks."

"Besides, if you were to work in the ministry for a while first, they can then host the examinations you need to become an Auror later on. Without NEWTs," Fred added.

Tee stared up at him. "Really? How did you know that?"

"I didn't quite know how important it was to you, but when you said that you wanted to be an Auror, I asked Dad about it and looked into it more. There are plenty of ways you can still qualify if your grades don't match up - they just say that to make you try harder at school."

Tee was still staring in surprise. "I didn't know any of that."

"See? I'm not just a pretty face," Fred grinned, his usual, less serious side coming back out to play. He put his arm around Tee. "So next time, instead of just ploughing on with things by yourself, how about you slow down and talk to me first? I may actually have something helpful to say."

Tee finally smiled at that. She leaned into him. Slowing down sounded worth it even just for moments like this. "It's a deal."


End file.
